3ds max 10 core machine 20 threads - Arnold5 is still slow and noisy

[Anonymous]

I have noisy slow renders. I've seen all the topics on optimizations on all sites (MAYA stuff mostly). I thought Arnold was over 10yrs of production proven development? Why is it sooo slow? With no built in denoiser? 1 image at 5k should take at most 2hrs on a 10 core machine. Just frustrated , I think I jumped on the band wagon to soon. :). Any suggestions welcomed I'll post part of the render a bit later once Arnold is done with it. Autodesk please allow other max apps with Arnold to join in on a distributive render to a single artist machine across a network. Ok I feel better. 🙂

[lee_griggs]

Can you post your render settings? What light samples are you using? What are you rendering? Can you post screenshots and images, please?

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the slow reply but I had to “get the job done” 🙂

app: 3dsmax 2018.4

System: Alienware - intel core i7-6950 cpu @ 3.00ghz , 3.00ghz \ 10 cores hyper threading: 20 threads

Image size: 5100x3300 pixels

Scene with stats: 9,802,150 polys

Settings:

Final photoshoped image:

[Anonymous]

Final Photoshoped image:

Noisy raw image:

noisy sample image actual pixels:

1 image took over 16hrs to render! 😞

I used portals and such. I also used the mesh light object with an Arnold Sky dome light.

Thanks in advance.

@Lee Griggs

[madsd · Accepted solution]

If you check the just released specs on Arnold 5.1 you will find 2 points that will interest you. 2 different denoisers., I am certain you will like the additions.

You could go one lower AA and raise spec a nodge tho. Diffuse as well, depending on how muhc noise sits in that.

So,

Raising AA from 3-4 is extremly taxing, you are better off raising the 2 components, and since you render 5k I doubt you realy need 4AA.

You may even get decent AA with a bit of work on filter at 2. which would greatly plunge your min max rays, which in turn could be spend on diffuse and specular, resulting most likely in faster render, cleaner image.

Not saying it will work, but I replicated your settings in a random scene, got a benchmark time at 52 seconds.

Changed AA to 2. Diffuse 9, Specular 6, time was now 42 seconds and less noise. Im not saying these are the numers to use, was just messing around. and I got 488-512 rays opposed to your 800-896.

In general I think you want the lowest possible AA and highest possible Individual samples ( but no overkill ) for snappy and clean stuff.

[pproestos]

I always use for interior renderings aa, diffuse, specular, trasmission the value of 5. I have 32cores Xeon and all I have to say is that arnold is simply...magic to use. Far away for everything else. But of course noise maybe it's also of how to use the arnold lights. Try if you uncheck portals in quad lights and render again. This is an interior render I did lately. Cheers.

[lee_griggs]

A denoiser is available in 5.1.

Tutorials about removing noise can be found here.

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot guys for the answers you provided I think I'm heading in the right direction.

@Lee Griggs nice "Chappie" like manga image for the line sketcher 🙂

@Petros Proestos That's a nice box you have I wonder how much the overall rig cost? I also want this Arnold "magic" you speak of.

@Mads Drøschler Thanks a lot. I think I should upgrade to 3dsmax 2019 and Arnold 5.1. this alone as you pointed out should improve my results.

I think Arnold 5.1 denoiser is a nice feature to help out in a pinch.

[pproestos]

@Nicholas Carrington

What I have is 5 year old used HP Z620 bought from ebay for 500€.

And yes arnold is magic, so go outhere and buy as much as many

cores you can. New ones, old ones, uses ones, it doesn't matter.

Just feed this awesome renderer with cpu power and it will reward you

with less render times and beautiful crispy results...

[Anonymous]

I love Arnold Renderer, but for backgrounds is extremely slow for me. That`s why i use it just for render characters and then i render the backgrounds in other render and composite them together afterwards.